Editing Dollar (section)

==Usage in the United Kingdom==
There are two quotes in the plays of [[William Shakespeare]] referring to dollars as money. Coins known as "thistle dollars" were in use in [[Scotland]] during the 16th and 17th centuries,<ref>{{Cite book |title=Handbook of the Coins of Great Britain and Ireland in the British Museum |author=Herbert Appold Grueber |date=January 1999 |publisher=Adegi Graphics LLC |isbn=9781402110900 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LESLAg3XguwC&pg=PA190 }}</ref> and use of the English word, and perhaps even the use of the coin, may have begun at the [[University of St Andrews]].<ref>{{Cite news|last=Michael|first=T.R.B. Turnbull|date=30 July 2009|title=Saint Andrew|work=BBC|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/christianity/saints/andrew.shtml|access-date=27 August 2020}}</ref> This might be supported by a reference to the sum of "ten thousand dollars" in ''[[Macbeth]]'' (act I, scene II) (an [[anachronism]] because the real [[Macbeth of Scotland|Macbeth]], upon whom the play was based, lived in the 11th century). In the Sherlock Holmes story "[[The Man with the Twisted Lip]]" by [[Sir Arthur Conan Doyle]], published in 1891, an Englishman posing as a London beggar describes the shillings and pounds he collected as dollars.{{Citation needed|date=March 2024}}

In 1804, a British five-[[shilling]] piece, or [[Crown (British coin)|crown]], was sometimes called "dollar". It was an [[Overstrike (numismatics)|overstruck]] Spanish eight [[Spanish real|real]] coin (the famous "[[piece of eight]]"), the original of which was known as a Spanish dollar. Large numbers of these eight-real coins were captured during the [[Napoleonic Wars]], hence their re-use by the [[Bank of England]]. They remained in use until 1811.<ref>''All Things Austen: An Encyclopedia of Austen's World'' {{ISBN|0-313-33034-4}} p. 444</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.kenelks.co.uk/coins/latermilled/17to19cent.htm|title=The Coinage of Britain - Milled Coins 1662-1816|website=www.kenelks.co.uk|access-date=30 January 2021}}</ref> During [[World War II]], when the U.S. dollar was (approximately) valued at five shillings, the half crown (2s 6d) acquired the nickname "half dollar" or "half a dollar" in the UK.